What to listen for: "If you are not doing search and rescue for the right reasons, you need to look in the mirror. Because it is not about you, and it's not about your dog." Today, our hosts, Stacy Barnett and Robin Greubel, have set the dogs aside (mostly!) to talk about something that affects every handler who has ever posted a training video, shown up to a webinar, or scrolled too far down a comment thread. They're calling it the “toxicity tax,” and they've come to argue i

What to listen for: “Everything I knew about my dog that I thought was true a week ago is no longer true. I have to reset my baseline and go, ‘Who are you today?’” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, pick up the conversation with Joy Brenner of K9 Medic. This time, they’re talking about turning everyday crate time into deliberate heat acclimation. Joy explains that many handlers keep cars too cold, creating a dangerous temperature “delta” that leaves dogs physiologica

What to listen for: “At the end of the day, taking care of our dogs is everyone’s job.” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, talk with Joy Brenner of K9 Medic about looking at canine first aid not just from the perspective of flashy trauma response, but that of the quiet, daily work of truly knowing your dog. Joy, who began in human wilderness and tactical medicine, built K9 Medic to teach handlers, medics, and even surgeons pre-hospital care tailored to real field con

What to listen for: "The bigger the gap between the image in our head and reality, the more we're going to struggle." Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, chat about a peculiar kind of self-deception. The kind that costs years of training, thousands of dollars, and sometimes the well-being of both dog and handler. They call it beer goggles: the tendency to see the dog we want rather than the dog standing in front of us. Robin talks about Flash, her Lab who simply doesn

What to listen for: "There’s immediate applicability of what you're learning in a chicken workshop. You might think it’s pretty basic. But it is transformational for your training." Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, welcome Bob Deeds back to debrief the first-ever chicken workshop hosted at Robin's farm. Bob, drawing on the legacy of Keller and Marian Breland and Bob Bailey, the operant conditioning pioneers behind Animal Behavior Enterprises and the IQ Zoo, explain

What to listen for: "Unless you have a dog who is engaged with you, you can't build that relationship. And you can't get through distractions. It's impossible.” Today, our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, are talking relationships. Specifically, what it actually means to have one with your dog when the pressure is on. They argue that a real relationship isn't Kumbaya, it's the thing that keeps a dog still on a medic's table and calm on a tailgate in Texas! Robin descri

What to listen for: “The first thing that you have to ask is, ‘Why?’ And if you can ask the why… that leads us to a training plan.” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, break down why "opting out" has become a buzzword that may obscure more than it reveals. While the term sounds empowering (giving dogs agency and choice), they argue it can become a label that prevents handlers from addressing underlying training gaps. Robin shares the story of 15-year-old Rae, who "opt

What to listen for: “We put a lot of effort into how we pick the best dogs. But maybe we should also have some discussion [about] how we pick the best handlers.” In the second half of the conversation with Dr. Jennifer Essler, our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, discuss her current research and future goals bridging academic science with real-world handler expertise! At SUNY Cobleskill, Dr. Essler's conservation work demonstrates how detection dogs fill practical nich

What to listen for: “My pet project has always been to take what you guys as professionals see in dogs, and your ability to accurately assess them, and write it down and put it into numbers and words.” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, sit down with canine cognition researcher Dr. Jennifer Essler. She unpacks her journey from coding Capuchin monkey videos in a windowless lab to studying fairness in wolves and dogs. Starting with music studies before discovering comp

What to listen for: “Trust your dog, but trust your training first.” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, welcome back veteran USAR handler Bob Deeds to talk about the artificial divide between working dog and sport detection communities, and why both sides desperately need each other! Bob shares his journey from FEMA disaster work into nose work, leading into his innovative "geo-scenting" protocol. This hybrid sport combines geocaching with scent detection using clove

What to listen for: “If you want to try to get the best performance possible, you've got to consider all of those pieces (drive, motivation, arousal, focus) together.” Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, are tackling the interplay between drive, arousal, motivation, and focus! While many trainers treat these as isolated concepts, our hosts argue that harmonious performance requires understanding how all four components work together as an integrated system. Using an e

What to listen for: Our hosts, Robin Greubel and Stacy Barnett, announce the opening of signups for the 2026 Distraction Camp and Intentional Handling and Hide Setting. Signups began on January 4 at noon Central Standard Time. Christi Raak, who has been on the podcast, will lead the Distraction Camp, focusing on engagement, focus, arousal, and mobility. Lily Strassberg, currently in Israel, has given a tentative yes to co-teach Intentional Handling and Hide Setting. Both camp